Hera Hussain

Shortlisted for the Bloomberg Open Technology Award 2015

12 November 2015

Hera Hussain, Community & Partnerships Manager, OpenCorporates

With a determination to enable women and girls to embrace technology, Hera has been championing open source in the charity space. A year and a half ago, she joined OpenCorporates, the world's largest open database of company information. Hera launched a series of #FlashHacks events crowdsourcing company data and mapping corporate networks, which is used by journalists to expose corruption and helps companies to do due diligence on each other.

Two years ago, Hera started CHAYN with just £350, after a friend from Pakistan needed help to escape domestic abuse. It is now a global volunteer-led organisation that leverages technology to empower women facing violence and oppression through online platforms, tools, how to guides and hackathons. A guide to how to build a case without a lawyer was described as a tool for survival by one survivor.

Hera wants to showcase women using open data to create transformative solutions: “I’ve been amazed and frustrated by how the world is losing out on its potential resources and creativity because of a reluctance to share. We can make a valuable contribution using open source.”